Fall of 33
The Fall of Protection Center 33 was a side effect of the Second Schism that elapsed over the course of several months. It ended in the loss of control of Protection Center 33 by the New Union, and was their largest defeat since their formation. The Second Schism As the New Union grew into the closest thing to a world power that there was in the aftermath of the Dominion occupation, cracks began to appear in its framework. Eventually there was an incident between the Commander and Rose Darion that ultimately was the beginning of the end for the New Union's brand of unity. This led to a substantial loss of personnel and materiel as the DvLs took a large mass of people who no longer believed in the New Union in order to form the Terra Concord. Sabotage that was conducted during this event led to spotty communications with other sectors of the New Union and the loss of the majority of the Protection Center 33 Ascension garrison. Great instability and demoralization was left in their wake, particularly in Protection Center 33, which up to that point had become the headquarters and central hub of the New Union. In order to attempt to main some semblance of stability and prevent further defection, the Commander drew in what was left of the UCM and Vanguard forces to Protection Center 33, emptying many outlying outposts and abandoning several New Union-aligned settlements to their fates. The New Union presence that had been felt throughout the northeast since 2021 virtually disappeared in under a week, at least outside of Protection Center 33. Growing Unrest The Commander hastily put together a contingency command council of a dozen individuals, consisting of several DvOs, EpUs and Judge units, as well as a few higher ranked Vanguard officers who had remained loyal. As days since the Second Schism turned to weeks, the lack of supplies and critical issues with unrest in the ranks very quickly became evident. Protests began to break out in sections B, C, and E of the city due to dwindling food supplies and further doubt in the civilian populace in the benevolence of the New Union. Rather than crack down on them, as would have normally been done, the New Union simply abandoned those sections of the city entirely, save for a few major facilities in those sections. They consolidated in sections A, D, and F. On October 12th, 2022, the Commander boarded an aircraft bound for Protection Center 35 in order to speak personally to the New Union Southern Command, as long-distance communications were still spotty. However, a short distance out from the city, his aircraft was shot down, and he was presumed dead by most. Word of this spread quickly, and it intensified the already unstable situation in the city. The contingency command council exacerbated the issue by restricting all access to critical supplies and provisions to anyone who did not immediately cease their civil unrest and reaffirm their loyalty to the New Union. This ultimatum would be the last straw, and became the beginning of the end of New Union control of Protection Center 33. The Battle Early Skirmishes Rioting and protests began to intensify following the ultimatum issued by Protection Center 33's command council. In response, several teams of Sword units were deployed with riot shields in addition to standard stunsticks and firearms and deployed as riot control teams. They were placed under the command of the small amount of Sword MP units that had received specialized training in controlling civil unrest. Units were formed up in lines with shields at the front to push back protestors from various New Union facilities. Generally, the less violent of the dissidents retreated before being hit with a shield or stunstick became a possibility. Others had less qualms about picking up rocks and various items to use as melee weapons to battle the riot control units. These types of rioters would quickly disperse when riot control teams received orders to charge into the crowds, swinging stunsticks and arresting everyone they could get their hands on. Actions like this would usually break a group of rioters, at least for a time. However, the detainment centers started to fill up, and the riot control teams started to be overstretched. The Protection Center 33 command council debated eliminating some prisoners to make room in detainment, but it was ultimately decided that most of the charges of those locked up would not warrant such, and would further anger the already incensed population. It was after about a week of this when the first casualties were inflicted on the New Union. A bag was flung from within a group of rioters, landing near a Sword riot control team. This bag contained an improvised explosive device which detonated shortly thereafter, killing four Sword units and injuring seven others. The rioters fled away from the Sword line after the detonation, but continued to protest. As the unrest was persisting, and it was unknown who exactly threw the device, the Sword MP in command called for help. A dozen Judge units responded to the request. However, upon arriving, they raised their rifles and began firing into the crowd, with one going so far as to throw a fragmentation grenade at them. Dozens were cut down, and many more fled, terrified. What was left of the riot control team chased the crowd for a time before breaking off and returning to base. This incident began to raise the ire of the remaining Vanguard, who called the actions of the Judge units into question. Clashes gradually became more violent, with rioters bringing their own makeshift shields and melee weapons and frequently charging the lines of the riot control teams. The large brawls that resulted yielded hundreds of injuries on both sides, and more detentions by the riot control teams. At this point, authorization was given to begin kicking in doors of suspected dissident leaders and hauling them into New Union facilities for enhanced interrogation by Judge units. Word of disappearances began to spread quickly around the city, and while there were those in the civilian populace who were in favor of it, hoping that the capture of dissident leaders might help defuse the rapidly escalating situation, most were upset by it to varying degrees. As a result, the street brawls continued to intensify in their violence. Where rioters might have previously attempted to only knock back their Sword opponents, they now were actively attempting to injure or kill them, and they sometimes succeeded. With the situation becoming more and more dire, the Protection Center 33 command council had the old city alert system reactivated, and issued a judgement waiver. Swift and brutal crackdowns on those thought to be the leaders of the civil unrest quickly followed. Vanguard forces were frequently used to help pacify the rest of the population as well as to help in raids in some cases. While some accepted this task, in the hopes that the relatively tolerable standard of living that had previously existed in the city might return, most quickly became frustrated with being used as the New Union's pawns, and would not put up with it any longer. In early November, 2022, the first groups of Vanguard began to turn and fire on their New Union overseers. As much of Protection Center 33's Vanguard rapidly turned on the New Union, they also opened their armories to the civilian resistance groups that had begun to form. Open Insurrection The initial attacks by rebelling Vanguard caught the New Union loyalists off guard, and they lost dozens of units and several outposts in the first days of open fighting. A broadcast was sent out from Protection Center 33's communications center urging the rebels to cease their activities immediately to avoid further unnecessary bloodshed, which was met with a broadcast refusal by rebel forces. Additional broadcasts were sent from the New Union communications center, which continued to yield provocative response broadcasts from the rebels. However, Grid units were eventually able to trace the source of the transmission. Autonomous judgement was placed in effect as Airwatch choppers bombarded the building that the broadcast had come from with rockets. New Union forces quickly swept in and attacked known Vanguard outposts and staging areas in the city. However, their operations were more difficult than expected, as the Vanguard and their civilian rebel allies proved to be effective at guerilla warfare in an urban environment, and while the New Union's first round of raids were wildly successful, further raid attempts were ambushed and driven away, taking heavy casualties in the process. At this point, Protection Center 33's Shadow units were given full authorization to engage anyone suspected to be engaged in rebellious activities. Their surgical strikes were effective at cutting into insurgent activities, thwarting ambush attempts, and driving the rebels to ground for a time. For a time, the Protection Center 33 command council thought they had managed to stem the tide. On November 29th, 2022, a volley of grenades and rockets blasted through the perimeter of Protection Center 33's main detainment center. Vanguard rebels, utilizing their refurbished military vehicles, spearheaded a full frontal assault on one of the most secure facilities within Protection Center 33, in a desperate attempt to unleash the masses of prisoners being kept within in order to gain further potential insurgents to attempt to defeat the New Union. This operation was synchronized with dozens of hit and run strikes near other facilities around the city, leaving the New Union scrambling to respond to each incident and resecure their control zones. While the detainment center attack inflicted heavy casualties on the Vanguard strike team, and they were unable to successfully secure the maximum security section, they were able to free over 7,000 prisoners and capture the detainment center's entire armory before pulling out. With several other armories being captured in the strike and the rebel forces capturing over 50 APCs from New Union forces, they began to engage in fewer guerilla operations as they began to gain the ability to take on the beleaguered New Union loyalist forces more directly than had previously been possible. As fighting dragged out, the New Union's attempts to gain supremacy through the use of strider siege units and hunter-chopper Airwatch were stymied by Vanguard's recovered military hardware, as well as weapons secured by rebel operations. Captured anti-air batteries sent many New Union Airwatch hunter-choppers down in flames. This led to several Shadow operations to disable or destroy these batteries. Rebel forces captured several refurbished missile artillery pieces and Union APCs in their strikes, and using them to help take down striders and engage in mechanized warfare against the New Union. The rapid escalation of the firepower used by both sides began to wreak havoc on the city, inflicting significant damage to the relatively few intact or refurbished buildings in Protection Center 33 that the New Union had been using, as well as yielding frequent collateral damage. Fighting reached levels of intensity not seen since Dethrone. As the fighting began to transition from a guerilla resistance to open warfare, civilians who had not involved themselves in combat for one reason or another began leaving Protection Center 33 of their own accord. While initially, the contigency council ordered these efforts be stopped, most New Union forces disregarded these orders, and eventually it became common practice among lower ranked UCM forces, as well as the loyal Union Civil Support and the few remaining loyal Vanguard personnel, to aid in the evacuation of civilian refugees displaced from their homes by the fighting. While these actions were technically running counter to direct orders, few EpUs, DvOs, or Judge units bothered to enforce that fact, and eventually the contingency council quietly rescinded the order. At 8 AM on December 13th, rebel forces made a major incursion into section F of the city, shattering the main defensive line of the area before breaching the Protection Center's central communications hub. Expecting heavy resistance, the rebels ran in shooting. However, past the facility's main access points, most of those they fired into were lightly armed communications officers. While a few of the officers drew their weapons and returned fire, most panicked and fled the area. That afternoon, once the area had been secured, the communications hub was destroyed by explosive charges. This completely eliminated all long-range transmission capabilities for Protection Center 33's New Union personnel, and removed their capability to encrypt their transmissions. Any chance of support from outside the city was now virtually gone, and the passage of information became difficult, with the New Union being reduced to using shorter-range radio communications and, in same cases, resorting to runners. On December 25th, the rebels seemed to disappear all of a sudden, giving the embattled New Union personnel a much needed respite. However, the very next day, it was back to business as usual, as the rebels began their first attempts to attack section A, the section in which the command council was headquartered. The Convoy As the situation in Protection Center 33 rapidly degenerated, a group of around two hundred Arch-class units, led by ten Judge units, together with the majority of the city's Storm units, began staging vehicles and gathering near the command center in Section A. Once they had gathered approximately sixty APCs, they began driving to certain major New Union facilities and removing computer equipment and archival devices, stasis pods, and some equipment crates. The specifics of the items removed by this group was largely unknown by both the rebels as well as most other UCM forces. As knowledge of the convoy spread, attempts were made by rebel forces to ambush it both in transit and once it reached its destination. While these efforts did draw some casualties, the rebels that carried out the attacks were generally put down quickly with heavy, merciless firepower. Eventually, the convoy completed its task, and it disappeared from the city, departing to parts unknown. Most of the city's remaining Airwatch accompanied the convoy, helping ensure its escape. Downfall By January of 2023, the raging fight for the city coupled with exposure to the winter weather had driven many of the noncombatant civilians out of the city. Those few who remained huddled behind New Union lines in whatever shelter they could find, perhaps holding some futile hope that the New Union might be able to bring back the relative order and stability they had once created. Supplies to the remaining New Union loyalists were limited, as the rebels had cut off their few remaining supply lines and by this point had captured many logistics and supply stations. The loyalist forces in section C began to break ranks and attempt to flee to the west or south, as they had lost a substantial amount of ground, and no longer believed victory was possible. All remaining Judge units had by this point redeployed to section A, and the only individual left who held any loyalty with the remaining units in section C was a Shadow DvO operating out of the former DvL's facility. When that facility was leveled by rebel armor, the remaining forces in section C began to rout. With the situation becoming desperate, the Protection Center 33 command council turned to a contingency plan left unfinished by 08292 called Operation Scorched Earth. This plan called for the mass destruction of anything potentially useful within New Union headquarters in the event that an uprising among the civilian populace overthrew the New Union, a prospect 08292 apparently did not feel was likely. The loyalist Vanguard members of the command council were less than enthused with some aspects of the plan, but ultimately few other options were left, as by this point, section A had been surrounded, and most of the New Union's vehicles had been captured, destroyed, or taken out of the city by fleeing New Union forces. The final plan, as determined by the council, was to deploy the remaining Judge units in an attack made to lead the rebels to believe the New Union was attempting to punch through their lines and escape. This would be a distraction from the Grid units sent out with Sword teams to sabotage and destroy all facilities and infrastructure of any importance in the city. The plan would conclude with a bombardment of the entirety of Protection Center 33 by all Airwatch wings. On January 18th, 2023, the Judge offensive began at 4AM, catching the rebel perimeter surrounding section A off guard. However, most of the sabotage teams sent out found the fighting had already destroyed most of the target facilities. Many of these teams found themselves under attack in short order, and did not return. A team of five Sword units accompanied two Grid units to the city's dark energy reactor, one of the few remaining active critical infrastructure pieces. Their objective was to set off a chain reaction that would destroy the reactor, and much of the city along with it. However, the two Grid units chose a different path. They distracted the Sword team before setting in motion a process that would shut down and deactivate the reactor. The Sword units were able to figure out that the reactor was not being primed to go off as planned, and engaged the Grid units, killing them but losing three units in the process. However, they were unable to figure out how to operate the reactor's control system, and were unable to stop its deactivation. Operation Scorched Earth was a total failure. All it ultimately accomplished was to get a few groups of UCM units out of the rebel perimeter, where they became unable to receive any further orders from command. No Airwatch units remained in the city at this point, and the Judge offensive had been broken up into smaller, separate groups, which were encircled and beaten back by rebel forces. One of the smaller Judge groups consolidated around the command center. With fighting visible from the windows, the command council determined that the city was lost. The Vanguard officers on the council suggested surrender to the rebel forces might save the lives of the remaining New Union forces, and the Vice EpU came to agree with them. However, the rest of the council refused to accept surrender as an option. They executed the four dissidents, then the remaining eight members of the Protection Center 33 command council committed suicide. When the last of the Judge units around the command center fell, the rebel forces declared victory. Casualties New Union Loyalists *UCM **Sword: 12,650 fielded, 8,451 KIA, 4,199 evacuated. **Vice: 1,400 fielded, 923 KIA, 477 evacuated. **Shadow: 10,250 fielded, 4,484 KIA, 5,766 evacuated. **Grid: 4,250 fielded, 2,376 KIA, 1,874 evacuated. **Judge: 6,030 fielded, 6,020 KIA, 10 evacuated. *Ascension Storm Units: 250 fielded, 31 KIA, 219 evacuated. *Union APCs: 1,270 fielded, 309 destroyed, 496 damaged, 360 evacuated, 105 captured. *Refurbished M142 Missile Artillery: 36 fielded, 15 destroyed, 4 damaged, 17 captured. *New Union Heavy Armored Assault Craft: 3 fielded, 2 destroyed, 1 damaged. *Airwatch Hunter-Choppers: 70 fielded, 28 destroyed, 36 damaged, 6 evacuated. *NOMAD-Class Synth Units: 16 fielded, 16 destroyed. *Loyal Vanguard: 1,783 fielded, 427 KIA, 1,356 evacuated. *UCS Personnel **Logistics: 1,100 fielded, 120 KIA, 980 evacuated. **Communications: 420 fielded, 116 KIA, 304 evacuated. **Medical: 1,340 fielded, 562 KIA, 778 evacuated. **Engineering: 800 fielded, 126 KIA, 674 evacuated. Vanguard and Civilian Rebels *Vanguard: 38,217 fielded, 14,765 KIA, 471 injured. *Civilian Rebel Personnel: 13,450 fielded, 6,324 KIA, 1,780 injured *Vanguard Abrams: 33 fielded, 4 destroyed, 13 damaged. *Vanguard Humvees: 862 fielded, 301 destroyed, 478 damaged. *Captured Union APCs: 105 fielded, 27 destroyed, 37 damaged. *Captured Anti-Air Missile Batteries: 20 fielded, 7 destroyed, 2 damaged. *Captured Refurbished M142 Missile Artillery: 17 fielded, 2 destroyed, 1 damaged. Unaligned *Civilian Refugees: 22,250 at start of open conflict, 7,653 killed in fighting, 14,597 evacuated. Aftermath The New Union's presence in the northeast virtually ended at the conclusion of fighting, with most of the survivors able to evacuate heading either south to Protection Center 35 or east to the western regional headquarters.. Small pockets of New Union units remained in the city following the declared victory, but most of those left either died from injuries or exposure, committed suicide, or surrendered to the rebels. The Judge units that had stayed within the city refused to retreat or surrender. The Judge units fought to the last man, severely cutting down the numbers of these already rare and elite units.. Severe casualties were inflicted on all other groups of the New Union, but they were able to evacuate a sizeable amount of personnel. Many of those who survived viewed the mass slaughter that had resulted in the loss of Protection Center 33 as a great tragedy, with some more radical elements in the New Union remnant vowing retribution for what had been done. While the fight had gone in their favor, the rebel forces were left with a ruined city with almost no available resources, all critical infrastructure either destroyed or deactivated, and no real capacity to rectify this. That, coupled with a lack of any plan for who would be in charge now, left the city's new owners in a state of instability. Most of the civilian noncombatants who left the city dispersed into the wilderness, presumably setting up new settlements or linking up with existing ones. Very few stayed with the evacuating New Union. Some returned to the city after the rebel forces won, but on recognizing the state the city was in, most of those who returned to Protection Center 33 did not stay long. The battle was the largest conflict fought since Operation Dethrone. It resulted in 49,514 deaths in total. This number might have been mitigated if all the major medical centers had not been destroyed in the fighting, and had the Second Schism not sharply limited the amount of medical supplies available in the region. With no one left in any clear position of authority and limited initiative among the rebels to work on cleanup, most of the bodies were left where they fell, and most wreckage and rubble was left unmoved. Over time, the rebel forces would begin to pull out of the city and establish a settlement at a former New Union outpost several miles to the north, leaving Protection Center 33 largely abandoned, aside from the occasional scavenger group passing through. New Union survivors of this conflict were left in saddened or angered states, each having their own reasons to be upset about what was lost. The battle came to be viewed as a great tragedy within the New Union, and would become a driving factor for some of the actions they would take going forward. The New Union ultimately suffered greatly from this defeat. The recently tumultuous period had seen the departure of the command council and a large portion of the New Union, the demise of the Commander, and now the loss of their headquarters, with great cost to personnel. There was a substantial decline in numbers of the elite Judge units due to this battle, as all but a few stayed and fought until they died, and those few who did withdraw only doing so under orders from one of the Commander's final contingencies. With no clear chain of command or plan of action on how to deal with this, further instability roiled the New Union. Some squad commanders led their units in raids on settlements suspected to have sympathies with enemies of the New Union, while higher up units and officers bickered about who ought to be in charge. This instability was finally ended when the Central Command Authority took power, and began to reshape the New Union in a way they felt would better be able to deal with the more volatile situation they found themselves in. Category:Conflicts